Brick wall construction



June'zo, 1939. UNRQ' 2,163,286

BRICK WALL CONSTRUCTION Filed March 18, 1938 INVENTOR 4a usolvf/ u/vfio ATTORNEY Patented June 20, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application March 18,

7 Claims.

This invention relates to masonry and par 7 ticularly to the construction of brick, hollow tile and stone walls.

The object of the invention is to provide an improved method and means for waterproofing the walls of buildings by an effective, economical construction of drainage channels or weep holes which drain water from the interior of the wall and thereby prevent it from seeping into the building. 7 i

A number of methods and devices have been proposed for draining water from brick and other masonry walls, but these have either'been uneconomical due to the use of expensive flashings, excessive labor costs, etc., or else have been inefiicient due to clogging or to other defects inherent in prior art constructions.

My invention, which avoids these and other disadvantages of the prior art, consists in em bedding a strip of flexible material of considerable tensile strength in the masonry during, the construction of a wall, while the masonry is in a plastic state, and then withdrawing the strip when the masonry has become at least partly set so as to leave an unobstructed channel opening on the exterior of the wall in the place originally occupied by said strip.

In constructing a brick wall according to my invention, the brick and intermediate courses of mortar are laid in the usual manner. However, at intervals during the construction of the wall, such as adjacent the spandrel beams at the various floor levels, lengths of rubber hose or other flexible material are embedded in the mortar between the courses of brick while the mortar is in a plastic state, one end of each strip being projected outside the wall. The bricklayers proceed with the construction of the wall, and then, after the mortar surrounding the embedded hoses has become partly set but is still in a semi-plastic state, the hoses are forcibly pulled out of the wall and leave unobstructed drainage channels in the places originally occupied by said hoses.

Although it is possible to construct drainage channels of any desired shape or size according to my invention, I prefer to lay the hoses in such a way as to form a continuous drainage channel in the mortar lying between adjacent courses of brick parallel to the outer surface of the wall, with relatively short branches extending perpendicularly to the main channel and opening on the outer surface of the wall. This is preferably accomplished by arranging a plurality of hoses in substantial alignment in the mortar, with one 1938, Serial No. 196,600

end of each hose bent forward and projecting outside the wall and the other end chamfered and contacting with the'bend in the adjacent hose. When the hoses are finally pulled out of the wall, they will leave a continuous main channel and a plurality of branch outlet chan nels in the places originally occupied by said hoses.

I prefer to use rubber or other flexible hoses to form my drainage channels because'of the ability of such hoses to contract transversely when subjected to longitudinal tension, which makes it easy to withdraw the hoses when the mortar has partly solidfied. The removal of the hoses may be further facilitated by the application of a lubricant such as Vaseline before the hoses are laid in the mortar.

One important advantage'of my invention is that it does not require any change in the basic construction of a wall, so that it may be used by any mason or bricklayer without special knowledge or instruction. Another advantage is that the invention makes it possible to form drainage channels of almost any length, depth or contour, according to the special requirements of each building job, which has never been possible in the past. Still another advantage from an economic standpoint is the fact that hoses of the type used to form my drainage channels are very cheap, costing only a few cents per yard at present prices, which is an important factor since it is inevitable that some hoses will be lost or mislaid by careless workmen, although such hoses are capable of being used repeatedly for the above purpose.

These and other'features and advantages of the invention will be described in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section through the wall of a building on line l-l of Fig. 3 illustrating the preferred method of forming my drainage channels or weep holes;

Fig. 2 is a transverse section through the wall, taken on line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front view showing the exterior of the wall; and

Fig. 4 is a detail view showing the chamiered end of one hose abutting against the bend in the adjacent hose.

In the drawing, l is a spandrel beam supporting the concrete flooring 2, and 3 is an angle secured to the beam l for supporting the outer course of bricks in the conventional manner.

The bricks 4 of the wall are laid in the usual way, with intermediate courses of mortar 5. The

spandrel beam waterproofing sheets 6 are laid between the layers and courses of brick in the manner shown to retard the seepage of water into the interior of the building, the upper horizontal portion of the sheet resting on a wedgeshaped layer of mortar I which is laid on top of the beam and causes the sheet to slope downwardly toward the front of the wall so that water will be deflected away from the interior.

At intervals in the construction of the wall rubber or other flexible hoses 8 are embedded in the mortar between courses of brick 4, this being done at the time the brick are laid and while the mortar is in a plastic state. In the embodiment illustrated, the hoses 8, which are preferably about three or four feet in length, are laid in the mortar which extends parallel to the outer surface of the wall adjacent the upper and lower edges of the waterproof sheets 6, one end of each hose being bent forward at' 9 and projected outside the wall while the other end is chamfered at l0 and placed in contact with the bend 9 in the adjacent hose as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. When necessary, the corners of the brick may be beveled off as illustrated at l2 in Fig. l to accommodate bends in the hose.

After the hoses are embedded in the manner described, the bricklayers proceed with the construction of the wall until the mortar surrounding the embedded hoses has become partly set but is still in a semi-plastic state, which will usually require about an hours time. 7 When this. condition obtains, the projecting ends of the hoses 8 aregrasped and the hoses are forcibly pulled out of the wall, thereby leaving a continuous horizontal drainage channel- I3 with a plurality ofrelatively short branches extending perpendicularly to the main channel and opening on the outer surface of the wall, as will be apparent from Figs. 2and 3.

The mortar between the courses of brick is usually about one-half inch thick in a wall of the type illustrated, so the hoses 8 may be about one-half inch in diameter, or they may be considerably smaller such as one-quarter inch. As stated above, it is preferable to coat the hoses with a lubricant such as Vaseline before they are embedded in the mortar as this facilitates their removal after the mortar has partly set.

It will be evident that various changes may be made in the foregoing details of construction and methods of application without departing from the scope and spirit of the'invention as defined in the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. Method of forming drainage channels in masonry, which comprises embedding a strip of flexible material therein while the masonry is in a plastic state, and withdrawing said strip when the masonry has become at least partly set so as to leave an unobstructed channel in the place originally occupied by said strip.

2. Method of forming drainage channels in a masonry wall which comprises embedding a plurality of flexible hoses therein while the masonry is in a plastic state, said hoses being arranged in substantial aligmnent with one end i of each hose bent forward and projecting outside the wall and the other end contacting with the adjacent hose, and then withdrawing said hoses from said wall when the masonry has become at least partly set so as to leave unobstructed connected channels in the places originally occupied by said hoses.

3. Method of forming drainage channels in a brick wall which comprises laying the brick and intermediate courses of mortar, embedding a strip of flexible material of considerable tensile strength in said mortar between the courses of brick while the mortar is in a plastic state, with one end of said strip projecting outside the wall, and pulling said strip out of said wall while the mortar is still in a semi-plastic state so as to leave an unobstructed channel in the place originally occupied by said strip.

4. Method of forming drainage channels in a brick wall which comprises laying the brick and intermediate courses of mortar, embeddin a plurality of flexible hoses in said mortar between the courses of brick while the mortar is in a plastic state, said hoses being arranged in substantial alignment with one end of each hose bent forward and projecting outside the wall and the other end chamfered and contacting with the bend in the adjacent hose, and then pulling said hoses out of said wall while the mortar is still in a semi-plastic state so as to leave unobstructed connected channels in the places originally occupied by said hoses.

5. Method of waterproofing a brick wall in the course of construction, which comprises laying the brick and intermediate courses of mortar, laying sheets of waterproofing material at intervals between the layers and courses of brick to retard the seppage of water toward the interior of said wall, embedding strips of flexible material of considerable tensile strength in said mortar between the courses of brick adjacent said waterproofing sheets while the mortar is in a plastic state, with one end of each strip projecting outside said wall, and pulling said strips out of said wall while the mortar is still in a semi-plastic state so as to leave unobstructed channels for the drainage of water in the places originally occupied by said strips.

6. A wall comprising a plurality of courses of brick and intermediate courses of mortar, having an unobstructed drainage channel of substantial length formed directly in the mortar and extending inwardly from the outer surface of the wall and horizontally between courses of brick which are parallel to said outer surface.

'7. A wall comprising a plurality of courses of brick and intermediate courses of mortar, having a continuous unobstructed drainage channel of substantial length formed directly in the mortar lying between adjacent courses of brick parallel to the outer surface of the wall and having a plurality of branch channels extending perpendicularly thereto and opening on the outer surface of said wall.

ALLISON G. MUNRO. 

